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- A role system, assigning different parts of the flow to different users
- Signatures, which will lock the information in place for security
- Fully customizable options, such as buttons, email notifications, and displayed messages
- Quick View feature so the manager/reviewer can quickly approve/reject the Expense Reports from their Task List
- Synchronization with Google Docs, sending a .pdf into a pre-made folder for later access
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First, we'll put together a form to collect the employee and manager reviewer information.
Auto-filling
The first step in our form is to create an Identification area, which will collect the the Name, and the Email Address of the employee and the name of the assigned Reviewer for that employee. In our tenant, the two employees used are named Jack and Tom. The managers (Reviewers) are named, respectively, Jill and Jerry.
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Using Business Rules, we can autofill not only the employee text boxes, but also the corresponding Reviewer box and Report Date. The employee information and the Reviewer name are automatically filled in using the credentials of the user who is logged in. The Report date will be filled in using a separate ruIe. The IRS Mileage Rate is a default value for that field.
Here is an example of a rule to fill in the current date using the frevvo.currentdate function. Refer to the Rules Rule Validator documentation for help troubleshooting your rules.
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if (form.load ){
ReportDate.value = frevvo.currentDate(form);
}
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var tot = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < DaysTotal.value.length; i++) {
tot = tot + DaysTotal[i].value;
}
GrandTotal.value = tot;
if (ExpenseRepeat.itemRemoved) {var x;} |
Approval Section (to be filled in by
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the Reviewer)
Create a section called Manager Approval as shown above. Managers Reviewers will approve or reject expenses using this part of the form.
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To assign a section to a role, select the section in question and go to the tab labeled Security in the properties panel. In the scrolling menu, select one or more roles. Assign the Manager role to the Manager Approval section in the Expense Report form.
Signatures
supports the ability to digitally sign sections. To enable signatures, select the section (by clicking on its header) and in the properties panel, select the Security tab. Select Text/Signature Image from the Signature dropdown to enable a digital signature for the section. You can select the Wet Signature type, if you prefer. Refer to Electronic Signatures for more information. If you also check Must Sign, then the form cannot be submitted unless the section is signed. The Lock Signed checkbox is checked by default - if checked, a signed section cannot be edited by a different user once the form is submitted. In this example, once the employee fills in expenses and forwards them to the manager reviewer for approval, the manager will not be able to edit the expenses. The digital signature guarantees that the data has not been tampered with. If you uncheck this box, then the signature can be removed by the manager reviewer who can then edit the Expenses section.
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Simply drag the Expense Report form into the main flows window. For our expense report, which already has roles assigned within the form, we will simply drag and drop the same form twice. This means that the workflow consists of two steps: both steps are using the same form but it will look different depending on who is filling out the form as we will see in the next step. Rename the second form Manager Review.
Assign Roles
Select the first activity (first Expense Report form in this example), and view the properties window on the left. A scrolling menu lists the available roles. For the first form select the Employee role. This assignment makes the first step accessible only to logged in users with the Employee role.
For the second activity, we could simply assign the role Manager. However, we want each employee's expenses to be approved/rejected by his/her manager and not by any manager. If we simply assign the role Manager, this would put a notification in every manager's inbox as soon as any employee in the company filed an expense report. Instead of assigning a role, we will assign it to a specific user. can dynamically determine which user the notification should go to. In the Expense Report Form, there is a text control named "ManagerIdReviewer." The Manager Id Reviewer is simply the username of the manager in question. We can use the information entered in that control to forward a notification to the right managerreviewer. In the Properties window, just below the Role menu, there is a text control labeled User (see the figure above). In that text control, type the following:
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{ManagerIdReviewer} |
This is a template. At runtime, will evaluate the value of the data item (ManagerIdReviewer), which is automatically filled in via a business rule above. will then send a notification to that specific manager only which is exactly what is desired in this case.
Quick View Setup
The Manager Reviewer can quickly accept/reject tasks by clicking the Quick View icon for a task when accessing the Task List. Set up this feature for the Manager Approval form in this flow. Click on the Manager Review form and then click the Setup Quick View link on the form Property pane. Be sure to check the Enable box and then compose a Summery of the task that will be seen on the Manager's Task List.
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You can customize/configure email notifications in . In the properties window for an activity, there is a link at the bottom labeled Set Up Task Notification Email. When you click it, a dialog is displayed with a default email message. This default messages reads: "You can access your task list by clicking {task.list.url}." The template at the end provides a link (in the email) to the task list that the manager reviewer can use to go straight to his/her list of pending tasks.
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This allows you to customize the label of the Continue button in a workflow. For our example, we'll set it to "Report ExpenseSubmit Expenses." Note that this applies to the current activity. In this case, we have set the button label for the first activity.
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This allows you to customize the task description that appears in the managerreviewer's task list. Note that this applies to the current activity. We will need to set this property on the second activity (step) in the workflow since that is the step that gets put on the managerreviewer's task list. The task description can use templates. For example, we have chosen the task description:
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Your expense report has been submitted to {ManagerNameReviewer} for approval. |
Flow Permissions
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Login as an employee (tom in our example). will display the first step in the workflow. This is just the Expense Report form except that the Manager Approval section is not visible.
After completing the expense report and signing, the employee can submit it to the managerreviewer. The expense report information cannot be edited by the managerreviewer. After pressing the Continue button (which is labeled Report Expense Submit Expenses as we customized), the employee will see the customized display message. In our example tenant, when the employee Jack Johnson submits his expense report, he sees the message "Your expense has been submitted to Jill Burns for approval." If the employee Tom Cat submits his expense report, he sees the message "Your expense has been submitted to Jerry Mouse for approval."
Task List
includes a built-in Task List for every user. To access your Task List, login and click on the Tasks menu item on the left. This will display any Tasks that are pending in your inbox. You can perform tasks, modify them (abort or route to a different person) and view the history (audit trail) of a particular workflow.
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In our example, when a manager (Jill or Jerry) logs in and views the task list, he/she will see any pending Expense Report approvals for their respective employees. The manager can then click the Perform this Task button.
The manager will see the expense report information submitted and signed by the employee. It cannot be edited. However, because of the Role settings described earlier, the manager will also see the Approval section. He/She can approve or reject the expense report, enter any comments and Finish Approve the workflow.
Documents/Notifications
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